Post date: May 12, 2020 5:40:17 PM
Chop and Drop: Notes
Uma Sashikanth
In early Spring, one of the ways to prepare your soil for transplants and summer crops is to chop and drop some nitrogen fixers. Here is the process:
1. Sow some nitrogen fixing plants in a thick patch in the plots you wish to enrich. Methi, mung, peas, are all good choices.
2. Sow thickly and allow them to grow for about 45 days. If you chose methi you can also take a few harvests along the way. If you grew peas and others you will get no harvests except few tender leaf tips.
3. In about 45 days, before the plant flowers (it would use up the reserves it made) you will chop the plant close to the ground and drop it right there.
4. Cover up the area with soil and compost. In 30-45 days, the soil will be absolutely nourished. The plants you chopped and dropped would have been decomposed by the soil and compost microbes.
5. You can sow seeds on this plot in about 25 days. You can transplant plants in about 40 days.
6. Chop and drop enables you to return organic matter to the soil and do in situ composting that is fast and efficient. Using a nitrogen fixing plant enhances the benefits.
These are ancient soil building techniques used in farms extensively. You can still sow a cover crop, chop and drop it to revive a hardened plot and make it ready for sowing in summer.
Allow the process 90 days. 45 days to grow. Then chop and drop. And 45 days to decompose. Efficient way to add organic matter and nitrogen to your soil for the growing season.
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